WASHINGTON — Companies that are developing small launch vehicles or who provide rideshare launch services say they expect new Chinese launch vehicles to drive down launch prices, raising concerns among some of unfair competition. During a panel discussion at the Satellite 2018 conference here March 12, executives of several launch providers said they expected small launchers under development or entering service in China, either by state-owned enterprises or private ventures, to sharply reduce launch prices in the coming years. “I think the Chinese are going to drive an order of…

WASHINGTON — Effective Space Solutions, a company developing spacecraft that can extend the lives of telecommunications satellites, has arranged to launch its first two spacecraft on a Russian Proton rocket in 2020. International Launch Services (ILS), the U.S.-based commercial arm of Proton’s manufacturer Khrunichev, is facilitating the launch, ILS announced March 12. U.K.-based Effective Space is building life-extension spacecraft called Space Drones that have a mass of 400 kilograms each. The two Space Drones launching on Proton will reach orbit via rideshare, piggybacking on a mission with a larger customer,…

You’re reading the SN Military.Space newsletter published Tuesdays. Sign up here for your free subscription. HOT TOPIC: Air Force makes bold modernization moves. Boeing, Northrop Grumman weigh whether to challenge Lockheed for GPS 3 For those who have been waiting for the Air Force to shake up its space investment portfolio, the budget request for 2019 was as disruptive as can be expected from the military. Money was taken from legacy programs to fund next-generation systems. This is what many “new space” companies and commercial tech firms have been hoping…

Defense budget establishes a “small launch” program with a dedicated funding line of $192.5 million over five years WASHINGTON — It’s been widely reported that the U.S. military views its satellites in space as prime targets of enemy aggression. But opinions diverge over how to deter and defeat potential attacks. One school of thought is that satellites could be made less attractive targets if the military were able to launch new ones into orbit at will, within minutes or hours of an attack. This approach appears to be gaining traction…

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California — Planet and Spire, operators of the two largest commercial cubesat constellations in orbit, say they manage their fleets to prevent retired spacecraft from lingering in space beyond internationally accepted guidelines. Speaking at the SmallSat Symposium here Feb. 7, officials from Planet and Spire said the companies have self-imposed rules to ensure their satellites burn up in Earth’s atmosphere within 25 years of shutting down, as suggested by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination (IADC) committee. Earth-observation company Planet has 200 satellites in low Earth orbit, making its…

Updated 7:15 p.m. Eastern with comments from Google and X Prize Foundation. SAN MATEO, Calif. — The foundation running the Google Lunar X Prize announced Jan. 23 that the $20 million grand prize for a commercial lunar lander will expire at the end of March without a winner. The X Prize Foundation said none of its five finalist teams would be able to launch a mission before the current deadline of March 31. That deadline has been extended several times in the past, but foundation officials previously said there would…

WASHINGTON — The space industry has at least 10 startups all wanting to use cubesats or other small satellites to help keep all manner of interoperable devices connected to a rapidly expanding Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. Among them is Fleet, an Adelaide, Australia-based company formed in 2015 that counts the French space agency CNES as one of its partners. Fleet raised roughly $3.8 million in a Series A funding round at the beginning of this year, providing capital to build two of a desired 100 nanosatellites for connecting industrial…

Uber quietly paid hackers $100,000 late last year to delete personal data the cyber criminals had stolen from 57 million riders and drivers – and the rideshare giant said it feels “assured” the hackers kept their word. But experts say it is impossible to know whether copies could exist. In Oct. 2016, after learning of the breach, Uber’s team tracked down the hackers and paid them to destroy the data, which included names, phone numbers, and email addresses for 50 million riders globally and 7 million drivers in the United…

WASHINGTON — NASA signed its first contract with small satellite rideshare company Spaceflight to launch as many as 72 cubesats between now and 2020 for a total price of up to $5.5 million. Specifically, the contract enables the launch of 72 “units,” which typically measure 10 centimeters in length, width and height, and have a mass of around 1.33 kilograms. These units are often assembled in groups to form larger cubesats, such as the 3U cubesats Spire and Planet use, or the 6U Arkyd satellites of Planetary Resources. Seattle-based Spaceflight…

ADELAIDE, Australia — Rocket Lab, the U.S.-New Zealand company developing the Electron small launch vehicle, said Sept. 26 that it will fly four cubesats from two companies on the rocket’s next test flight late this year. In a statement, Rocket Lab said the Electron’s second test flight later this year will carry two Dove cubesats from Planet and two Lemur cubesats from Spire. The company had originally planned to carry only a test payload on this mission, similar to the rocket’s inaugural launch in May. “We’re thrilled with Electron’s performance…